Honda has won the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s Manufacturers Against the Clock (WTCC MAC3) Tour de France-inspired team time trial for the fifth occasion in 2016 with victory over Citroën and LADA in Argentina today.
Over two laps of the Termas de Río Hondo circuit from a standing start, Norbert Michelisz, Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro set a time of 3m32.872s which Citroën would prove unable to beat.
In a formation headed by home hero José María López, the French make was faster than Honda by one tenth of a second after one lap. However, Tom Chilton and Yvan Muller were then unable to keep up with López around the second tour, and Muller was clocked across the line 0.677s slower than Honda’s benchmark effort.
After a difficult qualifying session, LADA struggled again for pace in WTCC MAC3 and finished up 3.308 seconds off the pace in third with Nicky Catsburg, Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente.
“We’re satisfied because we’ve beaten Citroën with a good performance by all our drivers,” said Honda team boss Alessandro Mariani. “Since the beginning of the season we’ve had good pace and now we’re working on the smaller details.”
Honda earned 10 WTCC Manufacturers’ championship points, Citroën eight and LADA six.
